Fellgrave's Home for Plot-Worms
by Fellgrave
Summary: A collection of snippets and unfinished works set in Wildbow's Worm. Also the reason why I've done little to no work on my older stories. Generally featuring alt-power Skitter.
1. Fire's Hot KP Cross

Fire's Hot, But I'm Hotter!

Taylor grimaced as she heard her tormentors leave the bathroom. She inhaled shakily as she tried to calm herself down, to keep herself under control and from tearing Emma and her little clique apart. No, she wasn't that kind of person. Plus it would be _way_ too much work. Instead she grabbed a spare hoodie, black, like most of her clothing lately, and swapped it for her juice stained one.

Opening the stall she let out a relieved sigh when she found herself alone. Walking over to the sinks, she leaned down and put her head as far under the faucet as possible before turning it on. Turning it off, she lifted her head and gave it shake, speckling the mirror with droplets of water. At least her hair was clean.

She stared into the mirror, and sighed. There was little about herself that she found attractive. Maybe a little more, and maybe less after the Locker.

Another rattling inhalation as she squeezed her eyes together.

The Locker. Even now, months later, all she could remember about those hours stuck inside was the feeling of rot and the deep, crushing darkness. All she had wanted was for the darkness to go away, and then, it did. She remembered the feeling of euphoria as the shadows receded, fought back by the soft light that had appeared before her.

She opened her eyes and found herself staring at her reflection in the mirror. Tall and thin, she didn't have anything that would make a boy give her body a second look. But her eyes, those were different. Before the locker, she had always found her large eyes out of place, but now they seemed to be almost perpetually half-lidded, and without her glasses, the brilliant neon green pupils were startling.

That was another thing she had to thank her powers for; no longer was she cursed to wear glasses. Her eyesight seemed to have cleared up almost over night after she snuck back home from school, and she had to lie to her dad that she was using contacts instead. He seemed to accept her lie, but it still made her cringe inside.

She gave her head another shake and paused to pull out a tube of black lipstick and reapply it. Her skin, already rather fair to start with given all the time she spent indoors and away from the world, had paled further after the Locker. It was likely another side effect of her power, and given the futility in fighting, she gave in and started dressing in darker colors and wearing thicker clothing. In a way, the changes from her powers made it both easier and harder for her. She grabbed the edge of the sink as she let her breath hiss through her teeth.

Emma and Sophia had, of course, torn into her the first day she had come to school in a heavy black jacket and working boots. But no-one would bother to steal an ugly pair of boots, and her jacket was water repellent and much easier to clean than her shirts and sweaters. And of course today of all days was the one where she forgot to grab her jacket before leaving home.

She eyed her backpack, noting the myriad stains seeping into the fabric, and growled. Her fingers tightened on the sink and she heard the sound of something cracking, but she wasn't listening.

It was tempting, oh so tempting, for her to go out there and leave a swathe of destruction behind her as she tore through the school, but she was better than that.

She pulled out her mother's flute from her pocket and rubbed it gently. Emma had had it, no surprise, but it had been surprising in how easy it was to break into her locker and retrieve it. Taylor didn't know why her former friend had kept the flute at the school, though she had a few suspicions, but it didn't matter. They didn't matter.

She put the flute back into her pocket and grabbed her backpack before leaving the bathroom. Later, the janitor would completely confounded as he tried to figure out how one of the sinks had ended up split down the middle.

xxxxxxxxx

The Docks were oddly quiet tonight.

It was something that had Taylor on edge as she hopped from rooftop to rooftop. The Docks were never quiet. For as long as she had been doing her late night runs, there were always the sounds of shouting, plus the occasional scream or gunshot. But not tonight.

She hadn't come across a single person, outside of a the usual drunks and addicts passed out or dead on the street. It was good, because that meant less chance of getting recognized, which was rather low, since have someone manage to see her who was actually sober or cognizant enough to remember her face the next morning would be a miracle. They might remember her costume though.

Putting it together had been both embarrassing and rather easy. Easy in that her costume was composed of a black leather bodysuit and leather jacket, partially dyed green like a harlequin's costume. A domino mask, half black half green, barely obscured her face and completed the outfit. The embarrassing part had come from the fact that she had been forced to go to a shop with a rather... exotic clientele to find the basic bodysuit. Thank god her father had never found the receipt.

Landing on the next rooftop on her route, Taylor shook her head of her thoughts as she dropped into a crouch. Something wasn't right, even beyond the silence. Crawling over to the edge of the roof, she peered over and almost immediately had to squash the urge to flinch back. The sudden movement would no doubt attract the attention of those below, which was something she had absolutely no intention of doing.

Lung cut an intimidating figure with his mask and tattoos, and given his reputation, he was someone Taylor wanted nothing to do with. Thankfully it seemed that he was the lone parahuman among the gathered gang-members, as Taylor failed to spot either of his two lieutenants among the crowd.

A car pulled up and disgorged another group of thugs who joined the group waiting below. Lung grunted loudly and walked into the middle of the group and began speaking. Waiting a moment to make sure no-one was watching, Taylor began to edge backwards from the edge of the roof, though not before she caught a certain snippet of Lung's orders.

She froze in place, before getting to her feet, her face a cold mask of calmness that did nothing to hide the fury in her eyes. Taylor had intended to simply let Lung go about his business, considering he and Kaiser had been butting heads over territory lately she had assumed that this was another raid, but now that she knew his targets... she couldn't let him go.

Her hands blazed to life as they were surrounded by pure energy, the thermal portion superheating the air into plasma that lit up the rooftop with a bright green glow. A manic grin settled on her face as she leapt from the rooftop and into the fray.

She'd heard Lung's fire was hot, but plasma was always hotter.

xxxxxxxxx

Because I felt it needed to be done, here is a Shego!Taylor. I may continue it at some point.


	2. One Girl's Angel 1

One Girl's Angel...

I leaned my head against the cold surface of the fridge to try and ease the throbbing behind my eyes. Ever since I managed to avoid whatever dark deeds Emma and Sophia, if I was honest Madison never struck me as smart enough to come up with anything on her own, had planned with my locker thanks to the cape fight that knocked out the power in that part of the city, the trio had been going out of their way to make my life as miserable as possible.

Sophia was the worst of the three. Sure, Emma's words hurt, deeply, Sophia had made it her personal crusade to cause me as much pain as she could physically get away with. Getting knocked down stairs, bumped into walls and lockers, having doors closed in my face, all of that and more. I was just thankful that most of the bruises were in out of sight places, though I suppose I could lay that at Sophia's feet for her trying to avoid leaving visible signs of her campaign against me.

Today's trip to the museum was a welcome relief, for all of an hour until Sophia tracked me down and tripped me, again. This time I ended up falling and slamming my head against some jeweled mace-thing that was on display, which really should have been behind glass or some kind of fence or something. Of course Sophia was gone the moment I got up clutching my nose, thankfully it wasn't broken even if it was bleeding a bit, so I had to listen to the teacher's lecture about being careful and not getting blood on historical treasures like it was _my_ fault, but I did get to spend the rest of the trip alone with my growing headache.

Once we got back to school I headed home as quickly as I could grab my backpack, which meant that I was off as soon as I stepped off the bus. Perk of having all my stuff with me at all times I suppose.

I sighed and opened the fridge, grabbing the milk and pouring into a glass before putting it back inside and closing the door. Dad had left a note telling me that he had a meeting tonight, so I had the house to myself for a while yet. Now if only I actually had a friend to come over it would be different from any other door.

I walked over to the living room and grabbed the remote off the table before sitting down. Which is, of course, when someone knocked on the door. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. I put the remote and my glass on the table as I got to my feet. Whoever was at the door knocked a second time before I reached it and opened and holy...

"Hi!" came the vision's melodic voice. It was the kind of voice Tolkien would have imagined his elves spoke with, and it took me a moment to realize it was still speaking. "My name's Cassandra, Cassandra Moira. I'm moving in across the street so I thought I'd go and greet the neighbors while everything is getting moved in. And you are?"

"Uh, stunned, I mean," I blink and close my mouth. Then open it again so I can say, "Hebert Taylor, I meant Taylor Hebert, pleased to meet you."

 _Jeeze Taylor, nice going. Way to make a fool of yourself in front of your new neighbor._

I honestly had no idea why I did that. Well, maybe some idea. It wasn't everyday you open your door and find an angel standing on the other side. Okay, angel may have been pushing it, but she was beautiful for sure. Emma had taken me along to one of her model shoots once, introducing me to some of the other models at the studio, and the woman - _teenager,_ I corrected myself, she looked probably my age - had them beat hands down.

I was tall for my age, thanks to my dad, so I was used to towering over pretty much every other girl in my grade. The girl in front of me came up to about my chin, a rather pleasant surprise, which gave me a perfect view of her long hair, so blonde it looked almost like silver, and all of the white and light grey feathers woven into it. She let out a soft tinkling laugh, I swear it almost sounded like bells ringing, and smiled at me. I relaxed a bit. At least she thought I was funny.

"That's a nice name. Do you mind if I come inside and stay a bit? The movers said they'd be a couple hours."

I tilt my head slightly and peer past Cassandra's hair, and sure enough a large moving van was parked in front of the Douglas' old house. It was quite the surprise when they won that random drawing in the mail, but they decided to take their winnings and move to Denver to be closer to the rest of their family. The house had been on the market for no more than a day before it had been snapped up,

"Sure, come on in. Want anything to drink?"

"I'm good, thanks though," Cassandra said as she sat down on the couch next to me.

"So, what brings your family to Brockton Bay?"

"Family troubles mostly." I blinked and looked away for a moment to hide my embarrassment.

"Oh, sorry, we can change the subject if you want?"

"No, that's alright, it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway," she said with a knowing smile. "Dad's always busy and his job takes him all over the country, sometimes out of it too, so it's been just me and my brothers for the last while. Of course those two knuckleheads are always either lazing their butts off or getting into some kind of trouble. They're the main reason we had to move here in the first place. Some of the things they did, it's a wonder that they haven't been put on the no-fly lists yet."

She laughed and I found myself laughing too. It felt nice, laughing. It struck me then that I hadn't really laughed in far too long. That killed the humour as I stopped and frowned down at my hands.

"So yeah," Cassandra continued, either having missed my turn of mood or purposefully ignoring it. "It was a bit of surprise that we came out here, but I don't mind much. School's the only thing that bothers me, since I'm starting new pretty much."

"Where are you going?" I ask curiously. Arcadia had a line up a mile long to get in, but from the way Cassandra talked about her father, he certainly sounded like he could pull the right strings to speed up her enrollment.

"If Dad had his way, I'd have been dumped into Immaculata fast enough my head would spin. Of course, I used every last promise I had to avoid getting stuck there. And the last of my blackmail material too. "

I blink and and do a double-take, which causes her to laugh again.

"Don't look so surprised. My brothers and I are all what you might call "trouble children." For Hadrian and Jorge, it's more physical, but they wouldn't have caused have as many problems if it hadn't been for me. Of course, now that we've moved, they've gone off wherever, so I'm pretty much on my own."

Now it's her turn to frown, and I find myself mirroring her silence. A slight urge to ask about her mother rose up, but I shoved it off to the side. Given how Cassandra talked about her family, I could guess at why she hadn't been mentioned.

"Anyway, I'm starting at Winslow tomorrow, you mind showing me the way?" she asks with another knowing grin.

"Uh, yeah."

She smiles as she looks over her shoulder and out the window. "Cool, it'll be nice to know I've got at least one friend there." I'm still reeling from her declaration when she gets to her feet. "Well, it looks like everything's moved in, so I suppose I should make sure nothing was damaged during the move."

I get to my own feet and walk with her over to the door. "Uh, well it was nice to meet you," I say lamely as I hold the door open. Cassandra simply laughs again, but unlike with Emma or the other girls, it's warm, not mocking.

"It was nice to meet you too Taylor." She steps past me, only to pause and turn around with a thoughtful look on her face. "Here," I blinked in surprise as she plucked one of the feathers from her hair and offered it to me. "I saw you looking at them earlier. You can have this one until you get your own, okay? See you tomorrow!"

Before I can react she's already halfway to the sidewalk and almost out of earshot. I consider the feather in my hand carefully before shrugging and sticking over my ear like a pencil. I blink and my eyes dart from side to side. No-one's around, and I wave to Cassandra across the street before I close the door. I smiled as I sat down on the couch. Sure she's a bit odd, but I had a new friend, and I dared to hope that things were finally looking up. Although I could have sworn I heard someone say something like "Welcome to the family." Weird.

-  
Elsewhere:

Dragon let out a metaphorical sigh as she finished up annotating the report on the mass-production viability of the latest invention from Boilerplate, a Tinker who specialized in steam driven technology. It was rather impressive what he was capable of achieving with enough materials, his spider tank certainly showed that, but the fact that it relied on almost no electricity or circuitry still limited it to the point on inconsequence most of the time.

She gave her 'head' a shake and pulled up her task list. Most of them were easily taken care of by rerouting some of her sub-processors to run in the background while she focused on the more important matters. The report was done; the preliminary specifications for Armsmaster's current project had been sent out to him a few minutes ago; all that was left was the hourly check on the major threats.

Quickly tapping into surveillance nets around the globe, including ones that were less than legal or moral, she began flicking through the current threat list. Ash Beast was still meandering his way through Africa, Behemoth was somewhere beneath Siberia judging by seismographic data, the Slaughterhouse Nine were in Florida abusing it's completely braindead Stand Your Ground law, Leviathan was circling Bermuda at the moment, Wissenschaft was still scouring through the old CERN labs in Switzerland, the Simurgh was missing, the Birdcage was still secure, Nilbog was still conta-wait a second.

She scrolled back through the data stream until she pulled up the relevant satellite feeds. She stared at the blank, empty space where a titanic monster should have floated with something close to pure panic, or at least as close as she could simulate. There were no words for how colossal a catastrophe this could turn into.

"Mother Fucking Simurgh!"

Oh wait, no she found some.

xxxxx

Yeah, no trigger here folks. Trolololol. Bonus points to those of you who get the references in the Simurgh's new name.

Oh, and the Wissenschaft belongs to the Anima: Beyond Fantasy RPG and well, lets just say that Wissenschaft isn't the only thing I brought over.


	3. One Girl's Angel 2

1.2

I blinked blearily up at the ceiling over my bed and wondered when exactly I'd woken up. I wasn't sure, but it was probably way too early given the sun had still been casting out only a false dawn onto the cloudy sky outside my window. I tossed my blankets off and swung my feet off the bed, stepping lightly to avoid disturbing my Dad. He'd come in late last night, and I didn't want to wake him so early. I threw on some clothes, a pair of worn jeans and a thick jacket over top a simple black blouse, and grabbed my school bag as I carefully opened my door.

Dad's lights were still off as I crept past his door and down the stairs. I left my bag by the front door while I ducked into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. Our stove was a gas model that made a fair amount of noise when turned on due to the igniters, and the microwave was worse, so that meant no warm breakfast for me. I grabbed the milk out of the fridge and poured it into a bowl before adding in my cereal.

As I sat down to eat, I noticed a flash of white out of the corner of my eyes. I blinked as I realized that I'd slept with the feather Cassandra had given me still in my hair. Huh. Now that I had noticed it, I could feel the way I'd woven it into my hair, which made me wonder at how comfortable with it I was.

By the time I finished eating it was almost seven-thirty according to the clock on the microwave, which meant that I had an hour to get to school before homeroom. If I waited for the bus I could probably relax until about eight, but that meant being stuck in close confines with a bunch of students who were either indifferent or hostile towards me. Not exactly the way I wanted to start the day. Which meant that I needed to leave now if I wanted to make it by walking.

I wrote up a small note and put it on the fridge before putting my bowl into the sink and giving it a quick rinse. I grabbed my bag and made sure to close the front door behind me as quietly as possible before hopping off the front porch. The streets were all but empty but I still glanced either way quickly before going across.

Cassandra's house wasn't that interesting really. It wasn't very big, nor very small, and it didn't really have any defining features to it. My house stood out in that it could use some repairs and updating, but Cassandra's didn't even have that. It was absolutely ordinary. Weird.

I'm just about to knock on the door when it swings open to reveal a smiling Cassandra behind it. She's dressed in a sky blue shirt with a matching skirt that just reaches her ankles. I realize that I don't know what to say, and my discomfort must have been obvious enough for Cassandra to pick it up because she waves me in with a grin. "Welcome to Casa Moira! Come on in. I'll just grab my bag and then we can go, 'k?"

"Sounds like a plan," I say as I step inside. The inside is as different from the outside as it could have possibly been. Inside the walls were painted like the sky, complete with clouds that seemed to almost move the longer I watched them. The floor was done in tiles that looked like the night sky filled to the brim with stars of all different colours. It was really quite beautiful.

"Alright I'm all set," Cassandra said as she suddenly appeared next to me, grabbing my arm and all but dragging me out the door. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!" She pauses just long enough to close it and lock it behind her before continuing on her way, at least until she reaches the sidewalk. She looks nonplussed while I stare at her expectantly.

Finally she scratches the back of her neck and laughs. "Um, so which way to the school?"

I laugh myself and shake my head as I point south-west-ish. I start walking and Cassandra scrambles as I start to leave her behind. We spend the walk to the school mostly talking about the Bay and it's history. I make no secret the way I feel about the Ship's Graveyard and how hard it makes Dad's job, and she talks about how her own father is so caught up in his work that he rarely has time for her or her siblings. From the sound of it, he's in a similar position to Dad, where he can do less and less for the people relying on him every day.

Neither of us talk about our mothers, and that's perfectly fine.

The school looms before us and I can already see the steady stream of students being dropped off by car or bus joining those who've headed there on foot. Soon enough were among the throngs and it doesn't take long for Cassandra's rather... unique appearance to start making waves.

I could hear the whispers as Cassandra and I headed into the school. I try my best not to let them get to me, and as much as I hate to say it, all of the shit Emma had put me through helped me ignore it. Cassandra though, she really impressed me. She didn't even so much as twitch at some of the remarks and rumours flung our just floated above it all with her angelic smile, as if reacting was beneath her.

One of the bigger toughs, who I'm actually surprised to see at the school, begins to move towards us. His arms are moving to either grab or punch Cassandra and before I realize it I step in front of him and direct my elbow into his gut. He lets out a grunt and I quickly stomp down on, grinding my shoe into his foot until he steps back. He glares at me and I glare back until Cassandra and I are past him. Part of me notices that the crowd had fallen silent, but then we're inside the school and the sound is back in a rush.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn to see Cassandra looking at me with serious expression. "You didn't need to do that you know. I would have handled him easily enough on my own."

"It felt like the right thing to do. You just got here, no reason to let the bullies go after you without you having possibly done anything to get their attention." I shrug and point towards the front office. "You'll get your schedule in there. I'll see you later."

I hear a soft thanks as I break off and swim through the tide of humanity towards homeroom. A fair number of the seats are already filled by the time I arrive and I see several of Emma's hanger-ons lounging around my seat. They glare at me as I approach, and I find myself returning the looks, instead of staring at my feet as I usually do. I was so tired of their shit. Apparently my change in behaviour is enough to startle them as they back off and head to their own seats.

There's a group of of Asian kids proudly displaying their Azian Bad Boyz colours as they huddle in discussion about something. Probably which white kid they think is worth mugging. My homeroom had quite a few gang kids. Mostly ABB or Merchants, since most of the Empire kids went to either Arcadia or Immaculata. I put my bag under my desk and sit down just in time to catch sight of Emma and Sophia parting from Madison.

She notices me and starts to head my way only to get pulled aside by one of her friends. The two of them have a quick whispered conversation before Madison moodily, but silently thank goodness, takes her seat next to me. I'm tempted to glare at her, but I decide the best way to fight her would be to ignore her as I pull out a sheet of paper and start drawing.

To my pleasant surprise I see Cassandra approaching the classroom door, her hair distinctive in the crowd, and wave her over. It takes a moment for her to spot me and for a brief second something dark flashes across her face before she starts making her way towards me. She makes it only a short ways before she stumbles and unleashes absolute chaos on the classroom.

"Oops," she says with an apologetically innocent expression as she bumps into Hektor Arnim, our school's star wide receiver and known member of the Empire Eighty-Eight. The blonde stumbles into the back of one of the ABB kids. Almost instantly they leap on him, dogpiling the poor teen and starting a rolling scrum on the floor. Hektor's friends leap to his aid of course, which leads to the group rolling across the ground and out into the hall. As they go out the door, a stray limb smacks into the wall hard enough to make it shake.

Distracted as everyone is by the ongoing fight, I'm the only one who notices as the shaking knocks loose a globe on one of the shelves lining the wall. The shelf itself is obviously at an angle as the globe slowly starts to roll along it, picking up speed until it reached the end of the shelf, tumbling off the edge and bouncing off another shelf before landing on one of the other boys' foot.

He starts hopping around as he clutches at his foot in pain only to trip over a chair leg, tumbling into one of the nerdier students. As he's dragged down he tosses the thermos in his hands into the air. It spins through the air before landing right on Madison's head. The top of the thermos pops off and dumps its contents, tomato soup or some kind of pasta by the looks of it, all over Madison's clothes.

She jumps to her feet with a shriek even as the rest of the class erupts in laughter, taking a sniff of the sauce soaking her before paling under the red liquid. She starts running from the class, and the last thing I hear as she's followed by some of her friends is her shouting, "Oh god I'm allergic to tomatoes!"

The class revels in the laughter for a few minutes more before the teachers come and break up the fight. Cassandra finally makes her way over to me and sits down in Madison's vacated seat after wiping off the last few drops of tomato sauce. All I can do is stare at her in awe while she puts a finger to her lips and winks at me. "So, I take it this seat is open? Oh, and do you mind lending me your textbook, I haven't got mine yet?"

I laugh out loud, drawing further looks from the remaining members of Emma's group, before reaching down and grabbing my books. As I hand it to her I can't but remark, "Whatever you say Mrs. Goldberg. Whatever you say."

Huh, who knew school could be this enjoyable.


	4. A Certain Dish, Best Served Cold Cross

-A Certain Dish 1.1-

I wasn't sure when I noticed things were different. Wasn't my fault really. I was far too busy to focus on anything else, which was the whole point. After the Incident everyone, teachers included, were dancing on eggshells, and supplying the student body, me and my friends more than others I suspected, with more than enough work to distract them from the school's big news.

Oh yes, everyone, come here and gawk at Taylor the Freak! Come stare at the scars on her face from where it was sliced by the locker vents, or the lines on her throat from the straps of her backpack as they choked her. Or maybe you want to stare at her limp? Or maybe the way the fingers on her left hand can't curl properly anymore? Come and laugh and point and jeer at Winslow's very own cripple!

What a pathetic bunch of sheep.

And none of them could see the wolf that had snuck itself into their midst. It wasn't even anything really obvious that caused me to notice things had changed either, just that The Freak had somehow managed to find some sheep to cloak herself with. Of course they were the dregs of the school, a couple of dealers with ties to the Merchants known as Castor and Pollux, aka the Reevrom brothers, and the suppliers for half the school's illicit materials.

Oh yes, no surprise at all that the only people willing to associate themselves with such an outcast would be well known troublemakers. But they were only the first to be drawn into the spiders web as she soon added more members to her band of misfits.

Aya "Gentle" Uesegi, a straight up psychopath, or sociopath, or whatever you might call it. Simply put, she was dangerous in a way that terrified most of the school. It takes a certain brand of crazy to stay absolutely serene when you just broke someone's arm.

Saul Algid, shoe-in for a career as an enforcer for the Empire Eighty-Eight after he graduated at the end of the year, and a major part of the school'a wrestling team. Taller even than Taylor, and built like a mountain, there were rumours that he had a particularly ugly record that landed him in Winslow despite his athletic talents and relatively easy going nature.

And Marco Guillepse, the only student, to my knowledge, that had managed to fail two separate grades. There were even bets already on whether he'd manage to pull himself together enough to graduate this year. Of course, the fact that he apparently started drinking when he was only fourteen and hadn't stopped yet might have been the source of his problems.

A cripple, a pair of creeps, a freak, a giant, and a drunk. It was almost comedic. Except for the fact that the cripple leading them had almost nothing in her eyes except a furious flame anymore. Whether they, or the sheep, knew it or not, Taylor was planning something, something that would probably end very badly for many people.

Myself included. Especially myself.

I had noticed too late, too late to step in and keep her from amassing her party and too late to stop her from getting herself prepared. It's only a matter of time before something ugly happens, and with the way the teachers have proven themselves to be utterly incompetent in such matters, there was only one place to turn.

"Hey Sophia? It's Emma. Yeah, good morning to you too. Listen, there's something I need to ask you to do. It's about Taylor..." 

-A Certain Dish 1.1-

Worm/Best Served Cold 

-A Certain Dish 1.2-

Too late. I was too late. I had hoped that maybe Sophia had noticed on her own, had seen the way Taylor's eyes had turned cold and harsh before I could and taken action on her own.

I really should have known better. Murphy can be a right bitch when he wants to.

The bell ending the period rang and everyone went to their lockers, switching out textbooks for their next class, except for Taylor of course. She carried around all of her books with her, or rather she had Saul carry them for her. It was surreal seeing her walk down the hallway, one or more members of her little company trailing a step behind like soldiers following their leader, or one right next to her as the two conspired in whispers.

Sophia and I were waiting for Madison to get from grabbing her books when we heard it. They say the only thing that travels faster than light is a rumour, and when someone shouted something about the girl having a seizure on the second floor, Sophia and I bolted for the stairs. Our reputation was more than enough to make a path through the crowd of students filling the halls, and my I felt the bottom fall out of my stomach when they parted to reveal the source of the impromptu gathering and exclamations.

Madison was on the ground, her arms and legs flailing wildly as as spasms wracked her body over and over again. Someone, Sophia I think, managed to get a the sleeve of her jacket into Madison's mouth before she bit off her own tongue.

My eyes were darting everywhere, looking through the crowd for someone, anyone who could help, only to catch a flash of shiny black leather moving through the mob. Almost against my will my eyes tracked it to where its owner was leaning over to whisper something into the ear of a smiling Taylor Hebert.

It wasn't a nice smile. The locker and subsequent stay in the hospital had taken away any softness in her face, leaving it full of sharp angles made crueler by the fades scars across her face. I looked at the face of the person who was once my best friend and found a stranger instead. Her face didn't change expression as she met my eyes and turned away.

One thought echoed in my mind as I watched her disappear into the crowd: Too late. I was far too late. 

-A Certain Dish-

I have no real clue what I'm doing with this. Oh well.


	5. Love Among The Ruins AU no Cross

Love among the Ruins. (Worm A/U)

My birth mother died when I was young. I can sometimes just recall a flicker of brown hair and a soft smile. And that's all. I can't remember what her voice sounded like, or what stories she used to tell me, or if she used to sing me to sleep. I'm not sure if I was too young to really remember it, or if my own mind had betrayed me and tried to shove all those memories into a deep little box that it locked up tight.

Dad took it worse though, because he wasn't young and his mind, and heart, weren't nearly as forgiving. It hit him hard, and for a long while I wasn't sure if the man I knew was coming back. But he did, eventually, and it was only after he met another woman.

I'll admit, at first I didn't like her, didn't like that Dad was trying to replace his wife with her. Then I saw him smile as she told him her day, and laugh wen she told a joke, and _live_ like he hadn't in so, so long.

To see him like that, I was willing to do whatever it took. I decided to learn about her more, like how she had been married too. She didn't talk about her husband much, other than to say that he'd died on the job, but that wasn't anything new. Dad still doesn't like talking much about my mother. She did have all these other neat stories though.

And I found out she had a daughter too! That actually made me feel... excited the first time she told me. Well, excited is probably an understatement, I was probably close to vibrating by the time I met her, and the only thing me from bouncing off the walls was my Dad's reminders of how a young lady should behave. God he can be so old fashioned sometimes...

My sister though, she was, and is, both a blast and bore in equal measures. She definitely got her taste in books from Mom, but she was nowhere near as social. Just like me, her dad's death hit her hard. It took a long time to drag her out of her shell, and I think she dragged me out of mine at some point, but it was worth it to see Mom and Dad happy like that.

Even if it was because little sis swore to marry me some day. Little troll.

I guess what trying to say is that I experienced change in some of both the best and the worst ways possible in my life.

I can't really remember my birth mother much, but I don't mind, and I don't think she'd mind either. She'll always be my mother, but Annette will always be my Mom.

"Amy, time for dinner! And grab your sister!"

And that's my cue. Now I have to pry little sis away from her books. Again. Guess I'll finish you after I eat. Later.

"Coming Mom!"


	6. Guide To Making Friends Through Violence

The Shonen Guide To Making Friends Through Violence. Worm and many different manga/anime.

I stared.

Honestly, I couldn't help it. I mean, how else could you react?

"What the hell are you doing in my room?"

Okay, maybe shrieking at the top of my lungs works too. But then again, I never expected to come home from school to find my house, my own room currently occupied by the last person I would have ever expected. If I was in any way in a proper state of mind, I might not have shouted at someone I knew could tear me apart with his bare hands.

"Hrah? So that's what you like out of the mask. Yer just a little brat ain't ya?"

"I'm fifteen!"

"Still a brat. Do you have sake?"

"What? No. And what are you doing here?"

"Huh, gonna have to go get some then. And I'm staying here, obviously."

Again, I could help but stare until I managed to find my voice while Lung looked around

"The hell are you talking about?" I paused as another thought occurred to me. "And how did you get here anyway? I left you unconscious with Armsmaster in the middle of the street."

He turns and actually looked a bit surprised for a moment. "Oh, that. I woke up a few minutes after you left and cold-cocked that tin asshole before heading home. 'Cept I forgot to pay the rent, and when I lit up I torched my money, so I thought to myself, where can I go? Then it hit me, I could stay with you!"  
"What?"

"Since you melted off my balls'n all I figured this would even it out, unless you'd rather pay back the favor another way?" he asked with a glint in his as he cracked a knuckle. I'm glad I wasn't looking at a mirror. I didn't want to see how quickly I paled at that.

"No, no, stay as long as you like. Just... try not to burn the place down, okay?"

His lips peeled back slowly from his lips and I trembled slightly. Had I crossed a line somewhere? Did I push too far? Then he clutched his chest, his naked, muscular, tattooed chest - holy crap how did I miss that? - and let out a booming roar of laughter.

"Heh, I like you kid, you got spunk." He chuckled again and reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a battered wallet before tossing it to me. "Now go buy some sake, I'm gonna need a whole lot of it."

That's how I found myself standing outside my front door with four big paper bags clutched in my arms and my dad tapping his foot as he got out of his car.

"Uh... I can explain?"

I wondered why I was getting likes for that.

Have some more:

I lifted one headphone off my ear and replaced immediately with a wince. Nope, they were still going. Who knew Dad had a karaoke machine in the basement. Or that he and Kenta - Lung had a regular name too, go figure - would actually hit it off over sake. Still got me grounded, but hey, at least Dad doesn't know I'm a cape, yet.

I heave myself off my bed and head downstairs to grab some water. As I lean against the sink, I see a swanky looking limo pull up in front of our sidewalk and a tall man in a butler's uniform and some kind of mask get out and open the back door. I look over to the living room and see Kenta laughing raucously as Dad tries in vein to sing along to Bohemian Rapsody. I look back to the waiting limo. Whoever's inside hasn't gotten out yet. I put down my glass. Well, Dad isn't going to hear the door, so I might as well answer it.

There's a short knock before I open the door. I look out for a moment before my gaze slowly drifts downwards.

"Is Lung here? Big guy, dragon tattoos, over inflated ego?"

I'd later blame my sudden lack of a brain to mouth filter on the sheer exhaustion and frustration that had built up by that point.

"Oi Kenta! Are you expecting a crossdressing little boy?"

The boy started trembling and I swore I saw a vein pop out on his forehead.

"Are you alright?"

"Crossdressing. Little. B-boy? LITTLE BOY!"

I felt my eyes pretty much pop as the boy reached under his skirt and pulled out a black ball the size of my fist with a long thick wick stuck into it. Oh yeah, wasn't there something in the news about some prodigy who ended up becoming a cape and threatening her university with... ah, right, _her_.

"I'll show you who's a boy! Feel the fury of my Bakuda-bomb!"

Fuck me.

What followed was a blur of explosions balanced out with copious amounts of bees and any other insects I could find, and ended up with me getting a roommate, and a whole bunch of covered renovations. Yay me.


	7. Queen Of Nine Spiders

Queen of Nine Spiders:

xxxxx

"You sure this is the place Chang saw someone duck into? I mean, look at all these webs man, there hasn't been nobody here in years..." said the taller of the pair of men, dressed in the colors of the ABB, as he waved his flashlight back and forth across the warehouse hallway.

The younger of the pair sighed before flinching away from a dangling web. "That's what he told me. Said he saw some girl ran in here earlier. No-one's come out yet, which means she's still in here.

One of the thugs froze suddenly, causing his friend to stop and turn around. "Hey you hear that?"

"Hear what? All I heard is us man."

The first thug shook his head. "Shh... listen."

The second thug strained his ears and for a moment he thought his friend must have been losing it with all the time they'd spent going through the maze of corridors, only to catch the quiet sound of something out of place, like someone was humming to themselves.

The thugs glanced at each other before following the sound. As they walked through the maze of hallways the walls became increasingly shrouded in webs, until they reached a door which seemed to be the source of the sound. The two thugs threw their weight against the door, forcing it to move through the thick webs.

The door opened onto the warehouses main floor, the cavernous room dark save for a few shafts of light that filtered through gaps in the brickwork and webs.

Sitting in the middle of the warehouse floor, what little of it wasn't blanketed like snow with spider webs, was a young woman atop an cushion the size of a small car and colored a deep purple that matched the color of her dress. She had her head bowed and her face was covered by her hair as she rocked from side while humming a soft lullaby.

The two thugs shared shrugs, the shorter one nudging his head towards the girl. The other thug sighed and cleared his throat as he took a step forwards.

"Miss?" He asked tentatively. No harm in being polite after all. He let out a soft breath as the humming paused and the girl turned her head towards him.

"Excuse... me..." His voice trailed off as the light of his flashlight was reflected off four pairs of black orbs set in an otherwise pretty face. "...ah fuck."

The girl hissed at them and began to rise, only she didn't stop where any normal human would. Instead she continued to go higher and higher, as the thugs realised to their horror that the massive cushion she had been sitting one was in fact part of her body. Eight armor-clad legs the size of their torsos unfolded from underneath her and

"Why can't people just leave me alone!" She roared, her features twisted with rage, and something else masked by her anger. The thugs tripped over themselves as they scrambled backwards.

"H-hey, no problem!" The taller thug stammered. "We can respect that! Let us leave and we swear no one will know!"

The rage that had overtaken her vanished instantly as it was replaced by a contemplative expression. "No one? You swear no one will know?."

"Oh thank god," sighed the older thug in relief. "Listen, just show us the way out, and will be gone for good, I promise." He gave his partner a glare before getting to his feet and slowly beginning to back up towards the door.

The cape narrowed her eyes, which caused the thugs to shudder as eight sets of of eyes stared at them, before turning her body and tilting her head up towards the ceiling. "They swear hmm, should I listen to them? What do you think?"

The thugs exchanged glances and began backing up faster, until the younger thug's flashlight swung over onto the girl's face and he paused as recognition finally dawned on him. "Hey, wait a sec, I know you, you're that creepy Hebert chick that goes to my school! The crazy one who talks to spi... oh."

Beside him, the older thug palmed his face. Hard.

"I see," Taylor stated coolly as she turned back to the pair of thugs. "I guess you've made my choice for me. Then again, it isn't a complete loss. "After all, it is a Queen's duty to provide for her subjects, and they are so, very, hungry."

From all around her swarmed a dark carpet of spiders every shape and size, and the thugs jumped as the spiders emerged from the webs surrounding them as well. The younger thug gather up what little courage he had left and shook his fist at Taylor.

"Y-you think this scares us? Ha! This ain't nothing compared to our boss!"

Taylor opened her mouth wide in a humourless grin that revealed a large pair of fangs dripping with a viscous green fluid. "Oh they weren't meant to scare you. They're the distraction. The real scare is behind you."

The younger thug turned around slowly, the flashlight slipping from his fingers as it illuminated the three bear sized spiders blocking the exit, before it rolled around and cast its light on the sixth wolf sized spiders that had rappel led down on either side of the two ABB members.

The older thug had kept his eyes fixed on Taylor and gave his partner a short sidelong glance. "Just so you know, I hate you. You and your big mouth."

"Yeah..." he said with a sigh, "I hate me too..." For a moments after that there was a tense silence.

And then the screaming began.

xxxxx

So... yeah. Lolth!Taylor whose trigger messed with her brain.


	8. Taylor Hebert Meets A Bunch Of People

Taylor Hebert Meets A Whole Bunch Of Interesting People.

xxxxx

"Hey, you alright?"

I blinked and glanced up from staring out across the waterfront. A young woman with long dark hair was giving me a concerned look. I turned back to look out over the water, my fingers itching to hold a pencil and put the scene on paper. I tried not to show how I was feeling. I'd never liked that look.

"I'm good," I said, though I hadn't really felt good in a long time. Decades actually. I was almost tempted to chuckle at that.

"You don't look like it," she muttered, and then blushed deeply when I laughed at her words. "Well you don't. I thought you could use a little cheering up, guess I was wrong."

She turned to go with a soft huff and before I was conscious of it my hand reached out and grabbed her.

"Hey, I never said I didn't want company. Besides, maybe I'm not the one that needs cheering up."

I had on my best winning smile as I let go of her arm. She gave a long look before shrugging and sitting next to me. "You're not from around here are you?"

"Yeah. I'm from New York actually." Not the one you're familiar with necessarily though. " One of my friends used to live here, and I needed a change of view."

"Huh, that must be nice, just getting up and going somewhere like that."

I frowned as I took in the awkwardness in her body, the thin gawky limbs that we're all too familiar to me even if the height wasn't yet, only now realizing they belonged to a youth not quite finished growing into themselves yet.

"Shouldn't you be in school?"

"It's Friday, school let out early." I gave her a look and she shrunk in on herself. Now that was too damn familiar.

"Problems at school huh?" Her mouth actually popped open a little as she stared at me. "Relax, I know where you're coming from. I had my share of bully trouble when I was growing up. Somehow I always seemed to attract them to me, going to the movies, out eating, they'd find me."

I smiled at the incredulous look she gave me. "Don't get me wrong, I wasn't always this strong. Used to be like you actually, real thin kid, kinda the runt of the litter. Okay, maybe you had me beat in height, but still."

"What did you do?" she asked, her eyes glued to me.

"I joined the Army." I laugh at the put out look on her face. "But I'm gonna bet that's not an option for you."

She grinned weakly and punched me in the shoulder.

"I meant the bullies."

I pause for a moment. "If you've tried everything else, all you can do is fight back. I haven't yet met a bully who likes it when whoever they're going after fights back. Keep doing it long enough and eventually they'll learn. It's what I did."

We sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes as she digested my words. She sighed and got her feet. "I suppose I should get back to school before it's done for the day."

"I thought you said it let out early?" I quip, getting another light punch in the shoulders in return.

"Shush Mr. Soldier," she said with a wagging finger. She paused as she started to turn away. "What is your name anyway?"

"Steve", I said as I offered her my hand. "Steve Rogers, and you?"

"Taylor Hebert. It was nice meeting you."

She gave my hand a quick shake and smiled one more time before she turned to go. She disappeared into the crowd and I turned back to looking out over the bay. It wasn't long before I wasn't alone on the bench. One moment the seat next to me is empty, the next another young woman, older than its previous occupant, had taken it.

"A bit young isn't she? Then again, I guess everyone is technically on the young side for you."

I sigh and shake my head. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough." Great, Maybe you should write a book, the Steve Rogers Guide to Dealing with Bullying. I'm sure it'll be a bestseller." Okay, that actually made me chuckle a bit.

"Well, I couldn't just let her go without doing something."

"If you say so." Natasha stretched out her arms and leaned against me. I gave her a nudge in the side and she leaned back with a sigh. "I've got nothing yet, but Clint's found us a place to stay for now."

"Good. Lascombe can't have gotten too far, and this Earth has enough problems without Hydra getting involved. Who knows, once we're maybe we could stay around for a while. God knows this place could use a little help."

"Feeling nostalgic?"

"More than you'd know."

Something in my voice must have been off because Natasha looked at me strangely. She shrugged it off and got to her feet when I didn't add anything.

"Come on, let's go before the landlord decides to strangle Barton."

xxxxx

2.

My hand slipped under the back of my shirt as the bell over the door rang. This was hardly the best neighbourhood, and the people we'd purchased the space from had warned us about the local gangs. I'd already warned off one group, and I'd been waiting for the others to show up or for the first to return with reinforcements in need of a firmer message. However, instead of the muscle I'd been expecting, a girl with dark hair and an air of forced confidence was looking around at the floor covered in full and half empty boxes.

"Can I help you?" I asked and the girl jumped almost out of her skin. Timid thing. Good height on the leap though.

"Um, I was looking for Mr. Saganami's Karate School."

Ah. I shake my head. Mr. Saganami, if that was his name, had been all too happy to take our money and leave. Too bad.

"Sorry," I told the girl as I turned back to unpacking the box of training dummy parts. "They moved out a couple days ago."

"Oh." I looked over my shoulder and raised an eyebrow as the confidence completely disappeared from the girl's posture. "Uh, thank you. Do you know where they went?"

"Can't help you there, I've no idea." The girl deflated further and turned to head out the door. I frowned in thought.

"Wait a moment," I said before she stepped through the door.

"Yes?"

"What do you want with them?"

"I wa-," she cut off and I followed her gaze to a patch of air that seemed to ripple like a hear haze. About time my partner showed up. Good instincts on the girl too. She shrugged off her distraction and continued speaking. " I need to learn how to fight. To defend myself at least."

"Why's that?"

She paused for a moment. "I, I'm tired of getting pushed around by everyone else. I want to stand up to them and not get knocked down again."

I don't even need to look deeper at her with sheer, honest emotion she put into her voice. Interesting.

"Maybe I can help you out after all," I said offhandedly.

"Really?" Huh. Just like that and she's got her confidence back. Interesting kid.

"Sure. You help out around the shop and I'll give free lessons. We could use someone to run around for stuff. Do well enough and you might even get paid for it. Sound good?"

"Are you kidding?" she asked with a wide grin. "That sounds great! Wait a sec, we?"

I tried not to grin as my partner decloaked behind her and spoke up. "Dat would me girl."

Once again she jumped into the air, except this time she spun around moved to backhand her surpriser in the jaw. He caught her hand before she made contact though. She had potential though, and spirit, I definitely had to give her that. Tosh gave her an amused chuckle as he let her go.

"Meet Tosh, my partner. "

"Uh, it's nice to meet you," the girl said as she rubbed her arm.

"I'm sure it is," Tosh said. He pointed one of the empty crates. "Now grab dat box and take it out if ya want your first lesson."

"Right!" The girl grabbed the box and started to drag to the door. "Oh, uh, my name's Taylor."

I smiled at her as she struggled to open the door without letting go of the box. "First lesson, always be aware of your surroundings. "

For the first time since Tosh and I had ended up on this backwater, things had started to look a little less dull.

"Move faster! I want to see you sweat!"

Yep, definitely less dull.


End file.
